It took forever this year to get the first scapes on the daylilies! That matched perfectly with so many other things I have needed to be patient on recently. It seems to be a theme …
Anyway, the first daylily scapes are here!!!
Fittingly, the first ones (I saw at least) are on the South Seas daylily – yes, my favorite.
Another very close favorite is the Purple D’Oro, and that has a few new scapes too.
The most surprising of all is the peach daylily that had the smooshing and breakage from the roof project now has a scape! Hurray!!!
I recently had a milestone birthday. The kids, as always, asked what I would like. I told them I wanted something special that would be fun for years. I asked for a long rectangular planter with a squirrel and bunny proof lid to grow my daylily seedlings each year.
Wow! It is beautiful, and perfect for me!
They bought the planter part, and put that together, and then designed and built the squirrel and bunny proof part. The top is built with a lip on the frame so it doesn’t slide around, and it just lifts off, so no hinge, no chain, and no tipping if there is no weight in it yet each spring.
I want to be able to move it at leisure, so no dirt directly in it either. (They brought me 3 buckets of dirt from the local garden store.)
I used to plant the seeds indoors in March, and have a table of seedlings indoors for 10 weeks, but last year I said no to that, and now plant all of the seeds from the same parent together in a pot (or two if there are a lot from that plant). I do that in late May, because we can get frost even until Memorial day, and I want those plants to be hearty. They get covers until germination and about an inch or so of seedling, and then – open air. I know – but last year I had a bumper year compared to other years with other methods.
This year I used five plant pots – two pots with seeds from Purple d’Oro, one with seeds from Marque Moon, one with seeds from China Doll, and one with seeds from South Seas.
I identify the parent plant just for fun, but, in reality last year’s seedlings all got planted in one new garden, with no markers identifying the parent plants. I know! 😦 But I’m not the propagator. The bees and birds are. I’m just in it to see what happens. So far a lot of greens, but no blooms. Yet. Still fun 😊
I only have one daylily from the direct sow years. It is four years old. I am hoping it finally blooms this year.
“Baby” from “South Seas” parent, surrounded by forget-me-nots that will bloom next year.
I have 15 plants from the potting method – three from two years ago when they were started indoors, and a dozen from last year when they were started in a “community pot” of same parent, outdoors. All still waiting to bloom. Some still tiny.
The buckets and plant pots that protected the daylilies, hostas, and sedum during the roofing project are off, but will have one more appearance in the next couple weeks when the gutter and fascia work is going on.
After that very long, hard to wait but dreading the potential collateral damage May, it was great to get back in the garden.
First up was removing the remainder of the tree seedlings. That got done yesterday. The total of buckets this year was down from the past few years – 5, compared to the usual 7. Hurray!
The dying tulip greens that got smooshd also got pulled. They were done anyway. sadly, also a daylily piece from the project smoosh, but next year …
Then the pollinator created, harvested daylily seeds from 2021 finally got planted. Another post on that coming soon.
The sunflower seedlings also all got pulled. They were an experiment, but the rolling roofing dumpster made that decision for me. My husband was very happy – hahaha!!!
Today my thoughts turned to the front entry garden. It needs love.
One of the Blue Mouse Ears hostas out back also got a little smooshed with the roofing project. That was ok because it needed to be divided anyway, and the flowers get hit by the sprinkler, so moving the whole plant is probably a good idea. Blue Mouse Ears are the perfect size for the entryway area, and with dappled sun due to the Amur Maple they will look great for years to come. That area also had the remnant of a Rainforest Sunrise hosta I mostly moved up north, but it got a bit smooshed too so this will not be it’s shining year. I had to cut away the smooshed leaves. No worries, it will pop back next year. But besides a center hosta and the few Blue Mouse Ears divisions, and the low growing sedum, what to put in that area for color? No to annuals I think. Daily watering – ugghhh. That is for bird baths – haha! No to sedum divisions – the two low growing sedum are enough. Asian lilies seem to die out there, and the stems are not great after bloom either. They require layering to cover those up. So it may be daylilies. I am concerned about the dappled sun, but maybe. Still contemplating.
Finally, the center of one of the back garden areas was pretty bare. Plenty of baby forget-me-nots that will bloom next year, but it needs something additional. I pulled a nice daylily from there to go up north last year, and right afterward I saw how bare that area was and regretted it. Bummer. So that area needs love. But low investment. Trying out the green shamrock. Not sure. Might need a trip to the garden store.
So that was the weekend garden fun. Super enjoyed it.
I tell you what! I am absolutely delighted! The care the roofing team took was very evident. A few smooshes where I was not too concerned about covering, but given all they had to work around, amazing end state! Way way way better than I had even dared to hope for. Judge for yourself 🙂
Yesterday the kids all came over and helped put buckets and old plant pots on the hostas, daylilies, and sedum I really want to protect. Nothing else can be done now. We wait and see.
I have been figuratively holding my breath, waiting on doing any work in the gardens (even tree seedling weeding and volunteer clematis staking 😦 ) at the townhouse until the roof project is done. If the pattern holds, that should be in the next 10 days. Then I will assess and start my gardening work for the year. In the meantime, the hostas and daylilies and sedum and asian lilies are up and doing very well. I am hoping the asian lilies are not damaged with the roofing project, but time will tell.
Last Sunday our daughter-in-law and our grandson and I went to a master gardener plant sale – an absolute delight! All the plants purchased went into their garden – all veggies that our grandson can enjoy 🙂 and us all too! As we were pulling him around in the newfangled softside folding HUGE wagon, he flashed his baby grin when people asked if he wanted to play in the dirt. Oh yah, I thought! That has been in the minds of Mommy and I for a while. Maybe next year will be the start of that.
So we wait and see what the year holds at the townhouse. Hopefully most of these are not casualties of the roof project, but we shall see what we shall see.
Last year was a weird year for home improvement projects. Labor and materials were an issue. At the townhouse there was no exception. Planned, and even marked, projects got pushed off and pushed off and eventually pushed to this year.
Yesterday my husband asked me if I had seen the landscape company come and spray our grass and flag an area in the front rock. I hadn’t. I went and looked. Sure enough, the area is marked for what looks like last year’s project – getting the gutter runoff diverted underground. It seems odd to me – the new roofs aren’t even started, and certainly the gutters that need to be replaced and re-angled aren’t on. But who knows? So I have a few decisions – Do I move the ninebark and a few sedum and a daylily from that newly marked area in front?
Last fall
Well, the daylily and the sedum are probably a yes – I would spend energy on finding new homes for those. They do well at the little house up north and could go there. Even if they become deer food, that would be better than becoming landscape discards.
Digging out a shrub at the townhouse? Probably not. The landscape provider’s trimming is different from what I used to do – less rounded and more like a pillar. I might have replaced it myself in a few years with a perennial. That whole front area was actually on my list of potential projects this year.
More and more, however, I am convincing myself the time for significant landscape investing at the townhome is … not this year. Maintenance, absolutely. Puttering, for sure. But hard work and money investing – not this year. Whether this is a more permanent change in approach for the townhome gardens, or just this season, time will tell. But definitely all signs are pointing to a “sit tight” garden year right now.
Now, whatever will I do with my daylily seeds this year? Add to that “rookery” up north?
I enjoy all of our daylilies tremendously. I do have a favorite as well. It is an unlikely choice for me based on performance. It has way less blooms than many of our other daylilies. It is orange – which is not my favorite color, even for daylilies. But nevertheless, it remains my favorite. It is our South Seas daylily. We have only one. And it just started showing up this week.
It doesn’t look like much right now, but it is back, and that is the start.
Susan's Daily Garden 